Brilliant 'Veep' opens new season with more cutting commentary on politics

Rob Lowman

Posted:
04/06/2014 02:30:25 PM PDT

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina and Sam Richardson as Richard the opener of Veep in season 3.

The third season of HBO's “Veep” opens with Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in Iowa signing copies of her new book with the ambiguous title “Some New Beginnings.”

“Is that a ‘Star Wars' reference?” asks one of those standing in line for her autograph. Another offers her a butter sculpture.

“What's your favorite word?” asks a woman.

“Next,” Selina jokingly shoots back pleasantly.

“Do you think I offended her?” she then asks her temporary aide, genuinely puzzled.

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Selina is putting up with this nonsense because it is a primary state. She secretly knows two years out that the president of the United States (referred to as POTUS) is not running for re-election. Meanwhile, her top staff members are back in D.C. attending the wedding of her director of communications, Mike (Matt Walsh). Everyone at the ceremony has agreed to temporarily ditch their phones; so what could go wrong?

The inside-Washington comedy, created by Armando Iannucci, is brutally cutting and cynical about politics in Washington. When in the second episode POTUS suddenly announces he has switched his position on abortion, an enraged Selina, who wants to avoid all hot-button issues, describes it as “The unflushable turd that is left in the can for the next person.”

For the characters in “Veep,” issues are secondary to what this means to us. They are sarcastic and crass. No one really seems to care about policy or helping anyone. It's all about keeping or getting power. That may seem a glib way to look at D.C., but our elected officials more often than not keep proving that to be the case. (A staunch anti-drug congressman convicted of cocaine possession, for instance.)

Emmy winner Louis-Dreyfus is brilliant at conveying this conniving shallowness. Her comic timing is impeccable and a look from her can be hysterically funny. “Veep's” cast is top-flight, and this season a number of them as her staff members are already vying to be her campaign manager if she runs for the presidency.

Emmy winner Tony Hale as Gary Walsh, the vice president's loyal longtime personal aide, remains the ultimate sycophant, and Anna Chlumsky as Amy Brookheimer, her chief of staff, would run over her mother for Selina.

There are also veteran character actors Kevin Dunn and Gary Cole (as presidential aides looking to stay in power) and Timothy C. Simons as Jonah, a fired White House operative desperately trying to stay in the game by being a political blogger.

Though “Veep” may seem to have started almost as a one-joke premise, it has developed beyond that. Inside all its satirical humor, there is the dark commentary about our dysfunctional government.